 |
| Beam Me Up Scotty! (6) And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:26-30 KJ Ver.) Jesus gave us some clear examples of Christians being removed and God's wrath following thereafter. He also states that the day of the Lord will not be unlike these examples. The day of the Lord is the rapture followed by God's wrath; this much is clear. Pre-trib fibs stretch the day of the Lord to encompass the whole of tribulation. But wait! The fifth seal represents the slaying of Christians! If the whole tribulation is God's wrath, then wouldn't that make God responsible for the slaughter of Christians!? When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? (Revelation 6:9-10 KJ Ver.) Now again, if the whole tribulation is God's judgement or wrath, then why are the martyrs of the tribulation asking how much longer it will be before God punishes the wicked? The seal judgements, therefore, are obviously not God's judgement. They are environmental catastrophies, war, starvation and disease. We Christians are called to be good stewards of the Earth. We are also told that we are the salt of the earth, meaning that through our works, we keep the people of earth from wickedness and moral decay, just as salt keeps food from rotting. The seal judgements are brought upon the whole earth because we have failed in both of these areas. Christians are as much to blame for the state of the world as non-believers. Being caught up in a false rapture promise makes sitting on one's hands all too easy. If you think it is unChristian to believe anything other than the pretribulation view, then what about all the godly believers who for almost eighteen hundred years, did not hold to this view? Yes, the pre-trib view is brand new (relatively speaking). It can be traced back to a man named John Darby and the Plymouth Brethren in 1830. The pretrib view found its way to the U.S. in the 1880s and brought with it friction and division. Pretribulation rapturism was included in the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909 and the revised edition in 1917. As a result of this new 'Bible', colleges began to teach the pre-trib view. It was not the view of the early church, nor was it the view preached by Jesus and the disciples. Jesus on many occasions told Christians of terrible horrors that they could expect in the tribulation and under the persecution of the anti-christ. There were times when the early Christians believed that the rapture could be imminent because the persecution they were suffering seemed so great - they believed they were living in the tribulation hour. Jump to Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Previous___________________Main Directory___________________Next |